The Pit of Pat

Art is part of a word I have a strained relationship with: artist. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been drawn to visual art, and to certain artists and themes. I’ve tried my hand at a few disciplines: drawing, photography and digital graphics/design. I consider myself an artist only in that I have a hard time staying away from the creative arts, and though I may not be gifted technically I have a great deal of interest and an exceptional love for the arts. It’s still a pretty big word, though, and I don’t use it lightly.

When I was growing up and heard someone mention art, I would think drawings, paintings and sculptures for the most part, and I admit to having used the term to describe a fairly narrow band of visual art for most of my childhood. During that time I remember compulsive drawing, doodling, colouring. I had never tried sketching from life until high school. I still don’t “sketch”, its part of my aversion to rough drafts. The bad part of having only fed the compulsion to draw and having never had it nurtured or trained in any way is that my technical ability has not improved noticeably, and by all accounts my subject matter has not deviated much since those early days. Lots of monsters, surreal creatures and poorly-drawn humans.

When I walk through an art museum, which is as often as I can, I definitely know what I like, which is most anything that is executed well technically or has an interesting subject matter. If you pressed me to be specific, I must admit I quite enjoy surrealist paintings, pure abstraction, abstract expressionist, and fractal/chaotic art. I’m also a not-so-closet Art Nouveau/Art Deco geek, and though now that the pioneering days are long gone, I still enjoy reading about “modern” (20th century) art. There was so much hope then, artists were braving new frontiers. I’m one of those strange, educated cynics that doesn’t like a lot of ‘modern art’ not because it’s a bunch of garbage, but because there are a lot of lazy artists who get caught up in how great their effortless abstracted works can be thrown onto a canvas. It’s been done - before you were born; a lack of technical skill is as evident with modernist paintings as it is with classical.

I am an H.R. Giger afficianado, and like many of my generation I adore his dark, twisted imagery. I’ve warmed up to the 18th and 19th century large-scale portraits, after seeing several that put the others to shame. I have fallen hard for the work of the Glasgow Four, and a great deal of similarly inspired artists discovered in a book on Symbolist art. I like the photography of Robin Collyer, and truth be told I am a sucker for pretty much all photography in general. To address the more neglected portions of my artistic appreciation I have unsuccessfully tried to expand my knowledge of architecture on a number of occasions. This has culminated in a deep love for Art Deco, a love I had a great deal of opportunity to explore while in Tasmania and New Zealand, specifically in the town of Napier - one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the world.

As for my own creations, they’re usually accomplished using Photoshop rather than by conventional means. I’ve been working with computer graphics since I was in grade one, using an ancient version of MacPaint. I used to animate scenes using HyperText stack programming, adding sound effects, creating strange little animations. I’ve avoided all 3D rendering for some reason. Mostly I stick to digital collage, though Illustrator and I are getting along quite well.

I’ve been fortunate enough to design posters for events, bands and CD liner art under the Sonus Productions mantle. Haven’t done anything with it in awhile, but one never truly leaves design behind, even this Wordpress Template was a little adventure.

I had my second digital camera stolen in 2005, and have been making do with a ultra-low-end JamCam until I decide what to replace my Canon G3 with. I was taking photographs right up until the month it got stolen, and had actually just finished taking a whole slew of photos of Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton that summer. I love photography, would like to know more about it technically, but find I have a difficult time getting down to it, though I’m a self-proclaimed shutterbug. I own a couple Polaroids, which I’ve had some fun with.
I like shooting landscapes, taking portraits (depending on the subject), random abstracts and lots of night shots if I can, in both colour and black and white.

For quite awhile I had been longing for an 8mm camera so I could make Super 8 films. Now I have a projector and a camera, but have not been inclined to get film yet. If I could be assured that I could shoot a pretty girl, dancing in the sun on top of a small hill in the middle of a field on a glorious summer day I would probably buy some. Until then, I am hoping to digitally transfer some of my 8mm. I have experimented with VHS Camcorders for a number of years, not so much digital. Film direction/editing is an interest of mine, and I would love to get my hands on a camcorder - maybe even more than a replacement for my digital still. Still expensive though, so I’m not sure what’s going to develop on that front.

Lastly, though I never thought of myself as someone who would sew - although fashion design has been an interest of mine for as long as I can remember - I am interested in projects which involve clothing/costume design. Perhaps in the future you’ll see more from this facet of artistic expression.

I think that’s about it. Oh yeah, I don’t sculpt. At all.
Does that cover it? Everything else is music, which is a section into itself.